My little garden with it's two wooden raised beds and the few pots and planting boxes that I have, has now been officially renamed - The Victory Garden.
And as if to celebrate the renaming, my monthly subscription of Kitchen Garden arrived with it's usual three packets of free seeds for me to plant this month.
Cabbages, Parsley and Lettuce seeds will be going in the beds in a couple of weeks. And I decided to take them up on the cover offer of 'Free Autumn Planting Onions Sets', I also ordered some garlic to put in at the same time. So that will be all the beds filled again by the end of September.
The Victory Garden is not having the Winter off this year!!
And just in time for breakfast this morning my first large red tomato turned red. Seen here with it's cousin who's plants have already given us a few red cherry tomatoes.
And of course we've already been eating the yellow ones, just a few up to now but they are very tasty. I've had my eyes on that beautiful big tomato for days now, watching it change from green to pale tinged red to full blown red this morning.
And my gosh was it delicious.
I sliced and cooked it gently with some garlic powder and the green tops of a spring onion, also from the garden and ate it on a piece of buttered toast. The simplest and most delicious meal I've eaten for ages.
I'll be watching all the other tomatoes very closely now.
Sue xx
How wonderful to have a ripe tomato from your garden! I am looking forward to seeing what you grow in your victory garden. :)
ReplyDeleteThe first large one, and definitely worth celebrating with a meal of it's own. :-)
DeleteI'm so excited to watch the green ones turning red in my mini greenhouse
ReplyDeleteEvery time I step outside I glance over hoping for another flash of red ... no luck yet though.
DeleteWhat a lovely, simple breakfast.
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing your raised beds are fairly sheltered with the house walls & garden fences so you are protected from some of the worst winter weather?
The are sheltered yes, but sadly also from the sunshine on one side of the garden. But I'm doing my best, and like you say hopefully they will have a little bit of shelter from the worst of any frost. :-)
DeleteNothing beats the taste of homegrown produce, does it? And the convenience and satisfaction of picking your own just outside your door!
ReplyDeleteIt is nice to be able to pick just what you need for a meal and leave the rest to grow on, or turn red. :-)
DeleteOoooh , I would have loved that breakfast, right up my street. We are enjoying the apples that Phil's friend let us scrump from his mini orchard, they smell like apples and taste like apples, so different from supermarket ones, makes me wonder why the supermarket ones don't ???
ReplyDeleteI guess it's because the supermarkets ones are kept in cold storage for so long that any gorgeous scent is lost. Left to ripen fully on the trees and then picked and used quickly, or stored more ambiently must make a different to the scent and the flavour.
DeleteThat looks like a brilliant magazine...England really is a nation of gardeners and the media definitely reflects that! I suppose that's the long-term legacy of the Victory gardens? Sliced tomato on toast has been a staple breakfast (or lunch or dinner lol) around here for a couple of weeks. I'm fair sick of tomatoes by the time they're finished but that's how it should be.....by the time next summer rolls around I'll be waiting and watching for the first ripe one! Never shall an out of season tomato pass my lips!
ReplyDeleteI nave small pots of homemade tomato sauce in the freezer to have with cooked haricot beans. We stopped buying baked beans after reading Ultra Processed. You get more dried beans, so more meals, for your ration points, and less money spent. Jack Monroe buys the cheapest supermarket baked beans, rinses them, and uses just the beans.
DeleteMel: Yes that's exactly how it should be, we should eat our fill and preserve what we can of seasonal fruits and vegetables and then move on to the next thing that is in season. Doing this means we have things to look forward to and things to make the most of. Being able to buy out of season things all year round that have travelled the globe and been picked too immature, means we are losing the flavour sensations of the past and the ability to wait for things. I'll just be using tinned tomatoes over the Winter, but as they are 6 points a can it won't be that often. :-)
DeleteNelliegrace: I will still be buying baked beans as they are actually a processed food not an ultra-processed food. The ingredients on the label of my beans contain nothing that I do not already have in my cupboards, they will be on the points system. Jack's way of doing that was genius. We've been Facebook and Instagram buddies for years.
DeleteHave you a corner for a couple of hens, Sue, like Nella Last?
ReplyDeleteOur three have kept us in eggs for the last year, with a few to sell to cover their feed costs, or to give away.
These days our friends appreciate two or three fresh eggs, just as housewives did in the 1940’s.
Not here, my garden is much too small and in too much of a built up area. We used to keep a large flock of chickens on our farm and then a smaller one of about 20 along with some geese on the smallholding. Selling the surplus eggs at Farmers Markets and from the farm gate. I would love to be able to keep just a few birds but sadly, it would be impossible.
DeleteMy daughter’s favourite breakfast although she likes it on sourdough. She says it reminds her of sunny Spanish holidays. Catriona
ReplyDeleteOh gosh yes I bet it does remind her, there's something so fragrant and tasty about lovely fresh homegrown tomatoes.
DeleteBoth of us here on the Phillips's homestead just love tomatoes on toast. So delicious.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
It's just so delicious and healthy isn't it, and quick too, no matter what meal you have it for.
DeleteBreakfast looks delicious, I've never had tomatoes on toast and I will certainly be trying this. Our cherry tomatoes are still green but we are still officially in Winter until 1st September:)
ReplyDeleteI only started having tomatoes on toast a couple of years ago when a reader suggested it on a blog post. Now I'm addicted, and homegrown tomatoes take it to a whole other level.
DeleteWe're still officially in Summer until then, but going by the current temperatures here and how dark the evenings are you wouldn't think it.
Now that's my kind of breakfast! x
ReplyDeleteIt's just simple and yet so tasty isn't it. The garlic powder made the lovely fresh tomato flavour really pop.
DeleteSuch a beautiful tomato. I'm going to be gutted at the end of the season when mine stop producing. You just can't get anywhere near the same deliciousness in shop ones, can you? xx
ReplyDeleteYou really can't. I've got a few more of that size that are on the verge of turning red, they just need a couple of days of warmth and sunshine ... fingers crossed. :-)
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